Retesting The MSI MPG X570 Plus Motherboard

By Thomas Soderstrom
last updated

Is this bargain-priced board equipped to handle a Ryzen 9 3900X?

Concerns about using Prime95 small-FFTs are addressed through the addition of Cinebench and Blender. The hottest default test for Blender 2.82 was its “pavillon_barcelona” scene producing the greatest amount of heat, so we downloaded the CLI (command-line interface) version under the organization’s “other platforms” dropdown and wrote a batch file to repeat the test eleven times. Meanwhile, Cinebench allowed us to simply set a minimum runtime and repeated the test until the runtime had lapsed.

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(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Cinebench warms up faster, but to a slightly lower temperature than the other two tests. Perhaps if the benchmark length were a bit longer—requiring fewer cycles to complete this one-hour test—it might even have been the best metric. But, it’s close enough to the other power tests that we wouldn’t call anyone out for using it in this configuration.

Retesting At 40% PWM

Concerns that our fans might be performing beyond those of the typical system are easily addressed by dropping PWM cycles to 40%. The ~ 945 RPM result should be slow enough to represent a wider range of systems with front-mounted dual-fan radiators.

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(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The worst reading of 102 degrees at 40% fans in Prime95 small-FFTs also happens to be the point at which the motherboard was supposed to have throttled the CPU, had we not configured it to a higher throttle point. If any of us owned this 3900X machine, we’d start looking for ways to get more airflow (such as fans that spin faster than 945 RPM).

Retesting In A Closed Build

The Phantom 410 is designed to support a 2x140mm radiator internally with two intake fans between the frame and top cover, but we flipped that arrangement with our 2x120mm unit to match traditional orientation: Both fans are under the radiator, blowing upward. We even tossed a pair of 3.5-inch drives in the lower bay to keep the build as realistic as possible.

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

We’ll speed this part up since you’re probably getting tired of redundant data: Putting the MPG X570 Gaming Plus into a top-radiator case resulted in dramatically lower temperatures compared to our front-cooled test platform. But, what about overclocking?

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • refillable
    ASUS TUF Gaming or Prime-P X570 deserves the editor's choice, not this one.
    Reply
  • Lutfij
    Where do you see mention of the board in the review(linked above) being awarded an Editor's Choice?
    Reply
  • refillable
    I'm pretty sure you have been following the whole story.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    refillable said:
    ASUS TUF Gaming or Prime-P X570 deserves the editor's choice, not this one.
    I wish we had tested it. The board Asus sent was priced significantly higher, and even the non-WiFi version of the board Asus sent was $15 more costly at the time of the review.

    But the later board dropped $10 after the original review, so the original review's value assessment is a snapshot of bargain pricing for that specific time.
    Reply
  • refillable
    Crashman said:
    I wish we had tested it. The board Asus sent was priced significantly higher, and even the non-WiFi version of the board Asus sent was $15 more costly at the time of the review.

    But the later board dropped $10 after the original review, so the original review's value assessment is a snapshot of bargain pricing for that specific time.

    I see. I am really glad you decided to re-test this and removed the editor choice award for an obviously inferior board.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    refillable said:
    I see. I am really glad you decided to re-test this and removed the editor choice award for an obviously inferior board.
    The data presented here shows that the original data was correct. The new problem for the board is that it is no longer price competitive.
    Reply
  • refillable
    Crashman said:
    The data presented here shows that the original data was correct. The new problem for the board is that it is no longer price competitive.
    It was correct, but it was incomplete. I feel like it takes a Ryzen 9 to show how inferior the board is to a slightly more expensive board. Now you have the full picture and different conclusions and I appreciate that (regardless of the price drop).
    Reply
  • Crashman
    refillable said:
    It was correct, but it was incomplete. I feel like it takes a Ryzen 9 to show how inferior the board is to a slightly more expensive board. Now you have the full picture and different conclusions and I appreciate that (regardless of the price drop).
    The Ryzen 9 heat estimates from the original article were shown accurate in the first chart of this article. We understand that some users would prefer to see a worst case scenario rather than a typical case, but also realize that most people building a PC have read enough to understand the basics of system cooling.

    All of that is water under the bridge concerning the award, since competing boards are now cheap enough to knock this one out of contention.
    Reply
  • whisperhorse
    just imagine the amount of people who bought the Gaming Plus based on the original, or even this (by March 2020) updated, yet still too forgiving review, and are now sitting on top of a 16 or 32GB kit of DDR4 3200, good SSD, a decent graphic card, serviceable power supply.... with an ageing 3600-3700X... and this motherboard.

    They could be buying a 5800X3D for 300 bucks total when accounting the sale of their CPU, and having the BEST gaming CPU on the market tied with Intel's, on a 3yo+ platform. Guess what, they are restricted to the 5700, which came out recently, while even the 5800X non-3D which was out for almost 2 years was not a drop in replacement to this board because it would overheat VRMs with PBO enabled...

    I don't know what's going on here really. I think it's OK you guys addressed the criticism in a new article, but it's totally unacceptable that you didn't go the extra mile and further fixed the original article stating very clearly: this top tier chipset motherboard will not work well with over 65W TDP chips, especially in cheap cases with bad attention to proper airflow.

    It baffles me that a publication which can identify serious reviewers in other fields, who have not only consistent but also visionary test methodologies, such as the amazing Aris in the PSU category, would try to save face for a really poor review with bad excuses, sarcastic subtitles arguing thermal couples are a step "up" (SIC, quotes included) because somehow having the same temperature in ONE MOTHERBOARD proves all motherboard sensors are "correctly placed" and "operated properly" (now that's good sarcasm, see?). Anyone who does multiple motherboard reviews will tell you the only way to properly validate results is using thermal couples, not just HWiNFO and/or FLIR. Only flip-chip BGA components may suffer slightly from thermal couple sensing, but then again, nothing external can sense that properly.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    whisperhorse said:
    just imagine the amount of people who bought the Gaming Plus based on the original, or even this (by March 2020) updated, yet still too forgiving review, and are now sitting on top of a 16 or 32GB kit of DDR4 3200, good SSD, a decent graphic card, serviceable power supply.... with an ageing 3600-3700X... and this motherboard.

    They could be buying a 5800X3D for 300 bucks total when accounting the sale of their CPU, and having the BEST gaming CPU on the market tied with Intel's, on a 3yo+ platform. Guess what, they are restricted to the 5700, which came out recently, while even the 5800X non-3D which was out for almost 2 years was not a drop in replacement to this board because it would overheat VRMs with PBO enabled...

    I don't know what's going on here really. I think it's OK you guys addressed the criticism in a new article, but it's totally unacceptable that you didn't go the extra mile and further fixed the original article stating very clearly: this top tier chipset motherboard will not work well with over 65W TDP chips, especially in cheap cases with bad attention to proper airflow.

    It baffles me that a publication which can identify serious reviewers in other fields, who have not only consistent but also visionary test methodologies, such as the amazing Aris in the PSU category, would try to save face for a really poor review with bad excuses, sarcastic subtitles arguing thermal couples are a step "up" (SIC, quotes included) because somehow having the same temperature in ONE MOTHERBOARD proves all motherboard sensors are "correctly placed" and "operated properly" (now that's good sarcasm, see?). Anyone who does multiple motherboard reviews will tell you the only way to properly validate results is using thermal couples, not just HWiNFO and/or FLIR. Only flip-chip BGA components may suffer slightly from thermal couple sensing, but then again, nothing external can sense that properly.
    Because all of the negatives you heard were a lie. The board performed fine with a 3800X in a regular case. The guys who said it overheated were testing it without airflow. And it was only recommended as the cheapest acceptable solution (ie, for value).
    The truth is that when confronted by a site that didn't care about real-world ventilation, MSI decided to discard this single product to save its reputation...from unduly harsh criticism. That's why, in order to make a system that was bad-enough to justify that other group's findings, MSI built a system with no intake fans and a single-fan radiator mounted on the rear panel. MSI then said that they verified those findings under that condition. But does that even sound like a cooling configuration that someone would run with an upper-spec CPU?

    The original review's test platform had been configured to produce similar voltage regulator temperatures to the site's 2010 reference PC, which had a Corsair Graphite 760T case and a Noctua NH-U12 if I recall correctly. So we automatically knew that guesses about that test system having "too much" airflow weren't realistic. The follow-up article showed that a typical closed case system with dual-fan radiator actually cools the voltage regulator far better than the platform used in the original article.

    Given that follow-up article's real-world build outperformed the original test platform, it sounds to me like you're trying to make excuses for another site whose results didn't adequately represent the airflow of a real-world build.
    Reply